Entire Community In Dominican Republic Relocated Due To Threat Of Rising Sea Level

The Ozama River is calm on a February day, but during storms, water surges over the banks and floods nearby homes.

(Photo by Mariana Dale - KJZZ)

Concrete and tin homes huddle together along the banks of the Ozama River in the La Barquita neighborhood.

On this day, the water calmly passes by trash-strewn shore, but it’s not always that way.

“In the neighborhood we had many problems from the river because when the cyclones and storms came you were nervous because at any moment you could have to leave,” said Maria Isabel Reyes, who has lived there for 23 years with her family.

She has seen the water rise and stream into homes many times. When the floods receded, residents returned and began again.

Most importantly, it’s far from the reach of the Ozama River’s storm surges.

The World Bank estimates the Dominican Republic will be one of the country's most affected by climate change in the next three decades. Rising sea levels could wash away the country’s tropical beaches and the homes of its most vulnerable, but moving an entire community out of harm’s way is a complicated endeavor.

Packing Up Again

Reyes watched workers pack all the contents of her dingy lime green home into a van and tried to keep an eye on her children and grandchildren.

She said she feels a bit nervous. This is similar to the times she’s packed up before the storms, but now she feels like a prayer has been answered.

“We asked God to continue and also open the door that I could be placed in a more secure (place) because really, no there’s no safety in any form (here),” Reyes said.

“The problem in the old La Barquita was that none of the presidents in the Dominican Republic’s past took into account that we were the people who live in a vulnerable neighborhood,” said Eridania Rosario Marcelo, who was president of the neighborhood board in La Vieja Barquita. “(We) didn’t have the tools necessary to live as we are living now.

Rising Sea Level

As the families leave, workers demolish the homes. The area will eventually become a nature preserve.

Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic’s capital, and where La Barquita is located, is considered one of the world’s top five cities vulnerable to sea-level rise.

Sea-level rise also threaten mangroves, fishing and the country’s booming tourism industry, found a 2013 report from the United States Agency for International Development.

“One of the most challenging things about climate change is that it looks different in different places because different places have fundamentally different characteristics,” said Sonja Klinsky, a senior sustainability scientist at ASU Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability.

She compares climate change to the boggart of the "Harry Potter" world, which changes into what a person fears the most.“If you already have certain vulnerabilities those are likely to be where the biggest human costs are going to lie,” Klinsky said.

The Dominican Republic sees La Nueva Barquita as an answer to the housing crisis on the banks of the Ozama River.

“This is a pilot project and a project that will create a precedent both in this country and on an international level,” said Sigfredo Peña, a trainer who helps families complete their applications for housing in La Nueva Barquita.

There are risks to uprooting an entire community. In a way, the residents of La Barquita became refugees in their own country.

“Space is not a neutral background where action takes place,” said Roberto Barrios, who studies displacement and resettlement after disasters at Southern Illinois University.

People build relationships with their neighbors, their physical homes, their jobs. He said the people being moved, need to be considered partners in the rebuilding process.

“If we don’t listen to them we can perpetuate effects of disasters,” Barrios said.

For example, if people can’t find work near their new homes, it’s a negative in the long run.

Reyes expressed these worries as she left the old neighborhood.

“Then are they going to have to give me a job there or I don’t know what I will do to continue paying what I have to pay,” Reyes said.

Adjusting To A New Life

Residents had to complete workshops meant to help them adjust to their new life.

The Unidad Ejecutora para la Readecuación de La Barquita y Entornos, or the Unit for Re-education of La Barquita and environment.

Eridania Rosario Marcelo was president of the neighborhood board in La Vieja Barquita. She said in the new neighborhood people need to keep their music down and throw away trash.

“Here we have everything,” she said in Spanish. “Here we have to maintain and keep it up.”

Eridania Rosario Marcelo was president of the neighborhood board in La Vieja Barquita.

(Photo by Mariana Dale - KJZZ)

There has been criticism of the new project — local media published reports from builders who say they weren’t paid on time, people who were excluded from the project and potable water rationing.

Residents wont be able to return to their homes after leaving for La Nueva Barquia.(Photo courtesy of Rick Lewis)

When it's completed, more than 1,600 families should have apartments in La Nueva Barquita. (Photo by Mariana Dale - KJZZ)

The Ozama River is calm on a February day, but during storms, water surges over the banks and floods nearby homes. (Photo by Mariana Dale - KJZZ)

“This is a pilot project and a project that will create a precedent both in this country and on an international level,” said Sigfredo Peña, a trainer assisting families as they move. (Photo by Mariana Dale - KJZZ)

Families wait until space opens in La Nueva Barquita before they can leave their homes. (Photo courtesy of Rick Lewis)

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